Cover Page
The handle
http://hdl.handle.net/1887/137884
holds various files of this Leiden University
dissertation.
Author:
Karakasis, V.P.
Propositions to the doctoral dissertation:
ADDING FUEL TO THE CONFLICT:
HOW NATURAL RESOURCES COMPLICATE
THE CYPRUS CONFLICT
1. The case of Cyprus shows that structural explanations of international conflict that downplay domestic and ideational factors tend to be inadequate.
2. A discursive approach provides a holistic framework about how agents use historical grievances to decipher their environment and formulate their responses to it.
3. What renders natural resources as contentious is not the distribution of potential profits but the particular intense relationship that Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots feel toward these resources; in its fullest form, this intensification yields an absolute divide between friend and enemy in relation to them.
4. The case of Cyprus shows that leaders, facing declining levels of public support, prefer to carry out energy-security policies which boost their popularity, even if these policies are considered extremely risky for their communities.
5. The most suitable way to uncover the discursive factors underpinning the intense relationship between the disputants is Q-methodology, as it measures human subjectivity. 6. The real reason why Greek-Cypriots do not let Turkish-Cypriots participate in
the hydrocarbons management is because they fear that the latter may hold the extraction of natural resources hostage to Turkey’s priorities on the island.
7. The prospect of sharing profits does not lure the Turkish-Cypriots into terminating their own exploration initiatives with Turkey, because what they actually want is to promote their political equality with the Greek-Cypriots.
8. Due to the collapse of the reunification talks in 2017, the most likely outcome of the present conflict between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots over the hydrocarbons in the seabed of the Republic of Cyprus is a naval blockade by Turkey.
9. The discovery of large gas reserves around the island seriously complicated a federal constitution for the unification of Cyprus.
